The Non-Coverage Phantom

Journalism is both the Sword of Truth and the Cloak of Invisibility as you might gather I believe based on some of the commentaries below (News You Didn’t See Much Of, Coverage Suggestion; etc.).

The stories NOT covered constitute the invisibility powers of journalism. Not covered = not real to much of the American public.

A reporter named Sarah Phelan of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, http://www.sfbg.com/ an old line, kick-ass “alternative” paper, wrote a very impressive piece called “Censored.” It’s in the current on-line issue.


There’s a lot of good stuff in that piece (like how the media obsesses over trivial stories), but the part I like best is her list of the Ten Biggest Stories the Media Ignored. The actual list is developed by Sonoma State U.

My favorite of the ten starts with:

2. Halliburton, the US energy company, sold key nuclear reactor components to a private Iranian oil company called Oriental Oil Kish as recently as 2005, using offshore subsidiaries to circumvent US sanctions.

Seems like that should have received a bit of coverage, no?

And how about these?

3. WORLD OCEANS IN EXTREME DANGER

4. HUNGER AND HOMELESSNESS INCREASING IN THE UNITED STATES

5. HIGH-TECH GENOCIDE IN CONGO

6. FEDERAL WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION IN JEOPARDY

7. US OPERATIVES TORTURE DETAINEES TO DEATH IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ

8. PENTAGON EXEMPT FROM FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

9. WORLD BANK FUNDS ISRAEL-PALESTINE WALL

10. EXPANDED AIR WAR IN IRAQ KILLS MORE CIVILIANS

Oh, and # 1? 1. THE FEDS AND THE MEDIA MUDDY THE DEBATE OVER INTERNET FREEDOM

Ms. Phelan elaborates on these stories and the reasons they didn’t get much coverage. Guess what was the main problem. The Bush Administration, you say? The big corporations that support the Bus Administration? Gee, what are you, a conspiracy theorist?

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